PR for the mile!

I ended up running twice on our vacation, just two miles each time. And each time I got a PR for the mile! Woo hoo!! The first day I ran it was 10:20, then the second time I ran it was 10:01. I was a little annoyed I came so close to breaking under 10:00. I could have kicked it into higher gear at the end had I realized. I'm not sure what the reason is for my increased speed--cooler weather, lower altitude, my breathing is better from swimming. I don't know, but I sure hope it can keep up on runs at home. Especially since I've already registered for next year's Phoenix Rock and Roll Half Marathon with an estimated finish time of 2:15...I'll have to run around a 10:00 pace if I want to finish within that goal!

Outdoor swimming = AWESOME

My family and my mom spent my son's spring break week in southern California. In the past I probably wouldn't have even given much thought to exercising while on vacation. I mean, it's vacation, so why would you? But, I'm training for a triathlon, and I'm in the home stretch of the six weeks to swim a mile program, so going a week without exercising wasn't really an option. I knew I'd be able to run some, but I was concerned about getting in some swims while we were gone. I found out there was an LA Fitness less than five miles from where we were staying, so that was my main plan. I called when we arrived in CA to see if I could use the gym since I'm a member in AZ, but my membership doesn't include gyms in other states. I could use the facilities for $5 each time I wanted to go. Before I had a chance to call the gym, my husband found a public, city pool that was right on the ocean, so we had looked that up as well. There was an indoor Olympic pool and an outdoor 25 meter pool. We were both kind of excited about swimming in an Olympic pool, but sadly it's closed until further notice. To swim here it was only $4 and right on the ocean, so I figured that would be a better experience than the LA Fitness lap pool.

So while we were having a beach day one day, I left my husband and mom with the kiddos and went off to swim. This week's swim was 1000 meters followed by 4x100s and 4x50s. Twenty laps to start it off! Man alive! I was a little nervous when I got there because all the lanes were taken, and I didn't want to have to share a lane. Thankfully by the time I got changed and out there a few had cleared up. Let me tell you--the people swimming there were swimmers, not like the majority of people that are swimming in my LA Fitness pool in Phoenix. It was really nice because it motivated me to really work on my form and just keep swimming.

You know what I learned? Swimming outside is AWESOME. It was so cool to see gorgeous blue sky above me when I'd turn my head to breath and just the way the water looked. I loved it. I've been enjoying swimming in general, but swimming outside really made me like it even more. Our old gym had an outdoor pool for lap swimming, and after that swim I really wished we could go back there, but it's really expensive and far away. So I'll just have to take whatever few opportunities I have to swim outside when they present themselves. I wish I'd been able to get one more outdoor swim in before the end of our trip, but it just wasn't in the cards.